Sweden | Melodifestivalen Full Results - How did the new voting shake it up?

Last weekend, Sweden's long-running music competition and Eurovision national selection Melodifestivalen came to an end with John Lundvik securing the win with his gospel pop ballad 'Too Late For Love'. This year the results were delivered slightly differently due to the changes to the televoting that were made - splitting the app vote in to 7 different age groups with each having a proportional say on the end result. The usual televote counted as an additional eighth group. But how did that impact the competition? Lets find out...

Semi Final One launched the new voting procedures back at the start of February and it didn't seem to have much of an impact. The results remained exactly the same if they had stuck with the old one. Wiktoria and her beautiful ballad 'Not With Me' won the heat with over 200,000 more votes than second qualifier Mohombi and 'Hello'. Based on the old voting of just the raw numbers of votes, the right two also advanced to Andra Chansen with the three lowest vote-getters placing to 7th accordingly.

A week later, Semi Final Two gave us a slight alteration to the results caused by the new voting format however not one that made a huge deal of difference. Seventh place Oscar Enestad with his pop number 'I Love It' came sixth in total overall votes, but Jan Malmsjo and 'Leva livet' managed to secure 6 points from the oldest age group (75+) meaning he took sixth following the tie. Hanna Ferm & LIAMOO won the heat comfortably - 300,000 more votes than second qualifier Malou and 18 more points overall whilst the two that went to Andra Chasen (Andreas Johnson & Vlad Reiser) were both comfortably ahead of fifth place Margaret.

Semi Final Three was the only time during the entire six week competition that a huge difference was made due to the voting changes. Whilst Jon Henrik Fjällgren and 'Norrsken' topped the heat and kept ahead of the drama, the person who was second highest in the number of total votes received was newcomer Rebecka Karlsson with 'Who I Am'. With the old voting method she would've advanced directly to the final with 8,000 votes more than third placed Lina Hedlund and schlager track 'Victorious'. HOWEVER ... Lina managed to secure 76 points across the phone vote + 7 app age groups, compared to Rebecka's 70 points meaning that actually Lina came second and advanced to the finals whereas Rebecka's fate was left to Andra Chansen. Martin Stenmarck was the second to advance to Andra Chansen with 'Låt skiten brinna' - but he also came fourth in both voting methods whereas fifth to seventh were also in the correct order.

All the right people qualified out of Semi Final Four however once again there were some small differences to note. Young Bishara came second in the heat with 'On My Own' however he actually came out of the heat with a greater total number of votes than heat (and eventual contest winner) John Lundvik. Whilst Bishara received 12 points from the three youngest age groups (3-9, 10-15 and 16-29), John's had wider appeal, securing the 12 points from the other four age groups and also the televote - coming out on top in the new point scoring method. It was almost the same story with the Andra Chansen qualifiers - with third place Lisa Ajax and her song 'Torn' receiving over 250,000 more votes than fourth place Arvingarna and 'I Do'. However, due to the points system and the support Arvingarna received from the televote + older age groups, Lisa only narrowly beat them by 2 points. Interestingly, fifth placer Ann-Louise Hanson made it through to the second round with 'Kärleken finns kvar' however likely had the lowest total votes of the three eliminated acts - finished the second round still with a 17,000 vote deficit on sixth place Anton Hagman.

On to the second chance round 'Andra Chansen'! Those who placed third and fourth in each individual heat have one more chance to win their way in to the final - spread out across four duels. No big difference here other than the format - where each age grouping was ultimately given one point each - with the higher vote-getter per group winning that point. No big shocks as Anna Bergendahl, Nano, Lisa Ajax & Arvingarna all won their heats comfortably and advanced to the final. Shockingly, poor Rebecka Karlsson who would've normally qualified directly for the final lost her duel against Arvingarna and exited the competition there.

Last weeks grand finale also gave us some slight differences however would not have changed the overall result at all - with John Lundvik coming out on top regardless with a perfect jury score and a staggering amount of public votes totaling 2,211,811. The only difference her was obviously the proportional aspect. In the past, the public vote points were awarded proportionally with the percentage of the overall vote they received. This year, it was converted to the age group/televoting points that were added to the totals instead. The only difference in the order was that Wiktoria and Lisa Ajax, who came eighth and ninth with awarded points of 28 and 23 respectively actually both had more votes in total than Arvingarna and Anna Bergendahl who came sixth and seventh - receiving 37 and 36 points in total instead. Due to Arvingarna's disproportionate support from the older groups, it pushed them up to sixth place overall. Whereas had the old voting format been used, Wiktoria would've placed sixth and Lisa Ajax, Nano and Anna Bergendahl would also have finished ahead of them. Check out John Lundvik's winning performance here:

For a further breakdown including individual numbers - check out THIS document which contains all the individual point and ranking breakdowns. John Lundvik will represent Sweden at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Too Late For Love'.

Let us know your thoughts on the new Melodifestivalen voting format and John Lundvik's winning song in the comments below and via our social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube. Make sure to follow, like & subscribe to us for the latest Eurovision news, updates and exclusive video content!